Development of tetra-primer ARMS-PCR to genotype the G1178A SNP on the Cucumis sativus Bitterness gene

Cucumber can be considered one of the most popular fruity vegetables worldwide. However, numerous cultivated cucumber varieties exhibit to produce cucurbitacins that lead to bitter taste in this crop species. Previous efforts uncovered one single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that obviously links to the bitterness trait in cucumbers. The SNP was identified as a nucleotide substitution at position 1178 within the coding sequence of the cucumber Bitterness gene (G1178A). Earlier, a few real-time PCR-based techniques were developed to genotype this type of SNP in cucumbers. In this work, we aim to establish a tetra-primer ARMS-PCR-based method to genotype the G1178A SNP in cucumbers. The present method shows to efficiently identify the SNP in both homozygous and heterozygous genotypes. It can be potentially applied in further cucumber breeding projects aiming to generate new free-bitterness cucumber varieties.